EDITORIAL: Common green space accessible to all

A few years ago, a Port Washington alderman observed that the city owned a large amount of land devoted to parks and suggested that some of it should be sold so it could be put on the tax roll.

The alderman was defeated in the next election.

He was among several Common Council members who pushed for the sale of a city-owned lot overlooking the harbor for the controversial Blues Factory development, and that was likely the primary cause of his ouster, but his parallel stance on parks surely sealed the deal for voters.

Every poll, survey or study on the subject, nationally and in Wisconsin, has shown that an overwhelming majority of Americans support public space for recreation and appreciation of nature.

The people get it. Some of their representatives in government, in the thrall of the notion that land exists mainly to be developed to support business and the economy and generate taxes, don’t.

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee is a case in point. It has repeatedly blocked grants approved by the Department of Natural Resources for nature preserves and parks on land coveted by developers, including the funding intended for the Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve in the Town of Grafton. An anonymous developer was poised to buy the land until Gov. Tony Earl stepped in to save the preserve with surplus Covid relief money.

Wisconsin is steeped in the conservation ethic, thanks to the likes of John Muir, Aldo Leopold and Gaylord Nelson, but it also has a historical association with the man who is considered the father of the nation’s public park system, Frederick Olmsted.

Olmsted was most famed for designing New York’s Central Park, but later in his career he designed Lake Park, a 138-acre green space sanctuary in the heart of Milwaukee with a mile of Lake Michigan shore. The city’s Riverside and Washington parks also have the Olmsted pedigree. Surveys have shown that people appreciate parks most as a benefit to human health and happiness, and also support them for their impact on conservation and the economic benefit they bring to their communities.

No wonder people like living in Ozaukee County. It’s a park paradise.

Parks under the aegis of the Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Department are remarkable for their diversity. The 32 parks range from preserves of virtually untouched nature to the manicured greens and fairways of two public golf courses.

All told, parks cover several thousand acres of land in the county. Much of that protected green space is found in the urban parks of cities and villages.

In Port Washington that includes a number of small neighborhood parks and a sprawling assembly of lakefront parks that offer the breathtaking views and beach stairway of Upper Lake Park on the north bluff, along with the close-to-the-water ambience of Veterans, Rotary, Fisherman’s and Coal Dock parks. The parks are connected by a 1.2-mile harbor walk and bring to mind Olmsted’s description of his Milwaukee legacy as a “grand necklace of parks.”

A bright gem in Port’s lake park necklace, Rotary Park, stands out for its intimacy with Lake Michigan. On a man-made peninsula jutting into the harbor, it’s a place for boat watching and fishing and quiet contemplation of the maritime environment.

Impressive urban parks can be found in other Ozaukee communities. Grafton’s Lime Kiln Park is an exceptional example, a 28-acre preserve with a river running through it between high, wooded, natural banks free of man-made clutter. In summer, when the Milwaukee River flows at a sedate pace in the manner of the Mississippi, it’s not hard to conjure an image of Huck Finn drifting downstream past the park on his raft.

Frederick Olmsted was a gifted landscape architect, but he is also cited in American history as a powerful advocate for the principle that common green space must be equally accessible to all citizens and protected from private encroachment.

Ozaukee County is living up to that ideal.